Staging Social Justice: Collaborating to Create Activist Theatre

A Few More Thoughts about Transformation

261 A Few More Thoughts about Transformation Norma Bowles A great majority of participants found the Institute experience to be very positive and empowering. They felt that their voices were heard and included, and they believed that they had created exciting and powerful activist theatre. We did it! I have never felt more tired, yet more alive in my life, because inside of me there is something that is screaming “Yeah!” I am finally taking a stand against all the things that I have had to face in the past, but could never really say anything about because I felt that I would be the only one. Now I know that I am not the only one. So thank you! Vanessa, university student, Texas The last two weeks have been the most wonderful two weeks of my life. What we have done here has given me a really big wake-up call for what I need to stand up and do, to protect my family and friends, and my future, [to be] a political ally for everyone here. Opal, middle school student, California This project made me step back and take a look at my life and what I need to change. I have lived with people that are still disgusted by LGBT people and have had great in-depth conversations on this topic. I shared what I have done, spoke up, and did not just sit in the corner letting things be said that I knew to be wrong. I may have done that a few years ago, but no longer. Jessica, university student, Ontario, Canada Norma Bowles 262 It did my heart so good to see not only my kids get involved and be so brave as to share their life, and to hear everybody else’s life, and it has made a profound change in our family and in the way that we talk to each other and share our views. Gary, parent, California This class and this production made me want to continue to do theatre for social change, because I want to be part of more positive transformations. Mallory, university student, California This project was for me the most rewarding, as well as exhausting and scariest time in my life. I would not change it for the world. The feeling of knowing that you are probably saving someone’s life is something which can’t be expressed, but it is something which will stay with you for life. I have little doubt that this is what we accomplished. Helen, community member, Queensland1 Still, while many participants felt excited about and empowered by the work, a number of participants felt frustrated, even disempowered or betrayed. Xanthia Angel Walker describes one of these situations quite compellingly in her essay in this volume. Another example involved a group of students who left one of the pro–marriage equality Institutes because they felt the project goals went against their moral code; in other instances, participants left Institutes early, feeling overwhelmed , disheartened, and/or offended by the discrimination stories presented by participants and/or frustrated or disenfranchised by the devising process. On the penultimate day of one collaboration, the participants voted to scrap the entire script and the devising process and to start again from scratch on their own. And after working tirelessly on a play to encourage employers to hire formerly incarcerated women, one participant wrote Fringe Benefits that she found herself “eighteen months later . . . no job, no resources and no collective support ” (anonymous, personal communication). Though I have devoted many, many hours to self-reflection and have continuously worked to fine-tune the devising process, I have found that there are no clear answers as to what can be done to guarantee that profound ruptures such as these never occur. Nevertheless , it does seem clear that each of these ruptures argues for the A Few More Thoughts 263 importance of transparency (everyone needs to be very clear, from the beginning and throughout the process, about project goals, procedures , and protocols) and empowerment (everyone needs to feel engaged as a uniquely important agent at every moment of the process). Still, even when everyone is genuinely committed to transparency and empowerment, fully embodying these values throughout the course of a project often proves dishearteningly challenging. The director of one of the community organizations with which we worked saw the Institute as an opportunity for that organization’s youth...